"Negligent" badminton star has doping ban backdated

29 April 2015 03:00 AM

"DOPING? Ah sure no bother a'tall."

We can expect to see Malaysia badminton player Lee Chong Wei (32) going for gold in Rio next year because, despite having tested positive for a banned substance, the Badminton World Federation has backdated his eight-month ban for doping.

The former world number one is now free to compete in an Olympic qualifying event, the Sudirman Cup, next week.

The maximum sentence Lee could have faced was two years, a penalty he said would have forced him to retire. More good news for Lee is that he gets to hold on to the two bronze medals he won at the Asian Games in South Korea last September

Lee won Olympic silver in both 2008 and 2012 and has four Commonwealth Games golds.

Lee produced corroborating evidence which convinced "to the comfortable satisfaction of the panel" that he didn't set out to cheat.

However, he was deemed to have been "negligent". Lee said: "I am relieved. I will be stronger mentally for competitions to come."